First Chapter~First Paragraph(s)~Tuesday Intros (4)

This is a weekly feature being hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea. We are to share the opening paragraph (maybe two) of our current read.  Which begs the question...would this be a book you would want to read, based on the opening paragraphs? 


This week:

The Reindeer Keeper 
Barbara Briggs Ward

Abbey read obits as if they were short stories.  To Abbey, they were.  This queer obsession began years earlier when she'd sit at her father's desk in the funeral home and clip obituaries from the local newspaper.  There'd be a copy for his files and copies for the family.  The ones for the family were always clipped a little more neatly.


Abbey knew some paid her father what they could; not in money but rather in gifts of food or labor.  The most amazing gift came from a most unlikely source.  Abbey remembered the name when a lawyer phoned one February afternoon.  She recalled the old man had been buried without fanfare.  From his obit she learned he had no children or siblings.  He'd been a recluse living somewhere off County Route 12.  On a single sheet of lined paper, notarized and witnessed and in perfect penmanship, this stranger bequeathed all his worldly possessions to Abbey's father.  This included a turn-of-the-century farmhouse, more than one hundred and twenty acres of woodland and meadows, and a cluster of outbuildings, including a barn set off by itself in a backfield.


My review of this book will be up later today at my Christmas blog.  Be sure to stop by and check it out. =O)